Employment and Decent Work in the Era of ‘Flexicurity’

This paper challenges the conventional wisdom that employment growth requires denial of all forms of security for workers, contrary to orthodox theorizing that regards minimal. Orthodox theorizing, emphasizing the wage-labour nexus, regards minimal worker security as necessary for good economic performance by firms and national economies. A comparative analysis of OECD countries shows that the extended security promoted by welfare systems has not been detrimental to growth, innovation and job creation. Developing countries cannot immediately adopt these emerging standards of ‘flexicurity’, but the methodology of employment diagnosis might help in designing security/flexibility configurations tailored according to their domestic economic specializations, social values and political choices.